Jocelyn Young, a 24-year-old woman who graduated from University of Oregon and had lived in Portland has died following a hit-and-run collision in Pasadena, California early Sunday morning.

According to the Pasadena Star News, Young fell off her bicycle while riding on Los Robles Avenue and was then run over by a man who was driving by. The man, 21-year-old Nicholas Avila, did not stop and was later arrested and booked on suspicion of hit-and-run and driving under the influence. He’s being held in jail in lieu of a $100,000 bail.

Young died yesterday from her injuries after being transported to a local hospital.

Young had many friends in the Portland area. Andrew Plambeck attended UO with Young and reacted to her death today. “We had a lot of close mutual friends. She was such an always-on wonderful presence. Always warm and cheerful. So, so sad. Another wonderful, unique person killed senselessly in the road.”

This calls to mind the concept of ‘Fallbreite’ in Germany, which identifies the proper berth to give cyclists you are passing as equal to the width of road they could be expected to occupy if they fell over.

This would be a reasonable conclusion if all actors on the road were non-sentient bodies in motion in the vacuum of space.

The reality is that no matter how much an auto driver hates a cyclist in front of them there is much less of a chance of the aware driver running over the cyclist in front of them because the act of doing so is a deliberate act.
In passing too close, or even side swiping, a cyclist on the edge of the road the auto driver can claim, with varying degrees of believability, that they did not intend to impact the cyclist.
When the impacted cyclist is directly in the path of travel of the auto, the driver must make a choice of claiming ignorance, blindness or momentary insanity.

The average person driving a car wants nothing to do with a cyclist blocking their way; the driver wants to pass you and never see you again. If they injure or kill you then they are going to be stuck dealing with you and the legal system for months.

I drive by this road (los robles) everyday for work. I was also contemplating biking to work as well. This road’s speed limit is 30 miles per hour. A lot of people ignore posted speed limits there unfortunately. Today I passed by the place where she unfortunately got hit and someone placed a bicycle there painted in all white to mark the sad reminder that a young lady passed away here.